Comment by Sarathstra

Comment by Sardon

I can actually see great potential in this for skilled Death Knights in PvE areas.

I'll use an example from the previous expansion pack, Burning Crusade.

In Heroic Mgt the final boss Kael'thas casts a 50k Damage Pyroblast at the tank. If a death knight was the target of this, they could cast Dark Simulacrum and then before the cast finishes, pop his/her Anti-Magic Shell to absorb the hit. This would result in a massive 50k hit on the boss themselves.

I would not be the least bit surprised if there are similar bosses like this in Cataclysm. However it remains to be seen if this spell will be considered a debuff in which bosses could be immune to. Or if more single target spells will not be possible to "mimic", much like some spells cannot be spell reflected.

That being said, the most obvious purpose for this is to further the idea that a Death Knight IS in fact the Anti-Caster tank. And I for one am glad to see more abilities along those lines. We already have a ultimate physical tank, the Druid. And two tanks that excel at each, Pallies, and Warriors, so it's nice to think that Death Knights could be the better Main Tanks in a situation where the boss nukes the take with powerful spells.

I only have one complaint about this spell, and that is that the only way it works just like Spell Reflection(ie; tank takes no damage) is if it's used in conjunction with Anti-Magic Shell, and even then unless you have the improved version you still take some damage. I think it might be more interesting if the Death Knight actually deflected the spell using their runeblade, but we already have a "Spell Deflection" talent that reduces damage taken, so I guess it's a minor complaint.

Comment by NeroXIII

I know Blood is the tank tree,but the school of a spell doesn't really make a difference in gameplay,I think it serves more like organizing/lorewise purposes,and I guess it would make more sense for Dark Simulacrum to be Unholy and Death Strike to be Blood...just my 2 coppers.Edit:Okay,not school then,my bad,but I guess as this is a more mystical ability,almost a 'spell'(not gameplay,but lorewise),so this would make more sense as unholy.

Comment by Polatrite

How are the mechanics for how the deathknight's duplicate spell gets launched?

Here's a hypothetical example:

Enemy mage is casting Polymorph on ally rogue.

You use Dark Simulacrum on enemy mage.

You target enemy priest.

Ally rogue pops Cloak of Shadows.

Enemy mage's Polymorph misses.

You cast Polymorph on enemy priest (current target).

Does it function like this? Also, if you Dark Simulacrum a big heal like Holy Light, then target an enemy player, would it smart-heal you automatically?

Comment by BlueWaffles

The spell still hits you I believe, unlike spell reflection.

Comment by lolomghax

Think about this in PvP and the effects it might have on survivability when fighting a class that can heal itself.

Simply place this on him before he casts his big Holy Light / greater healing wave, and BAM -> back in business

Comment by smeden

this "spell/attack" only works on spells and attacks that can be spell reflected... so heals dosent count.. since enemys cant heal you other when your mindcontrolled.

one assumption would be..if you cast this on a warrior (seems useless) in arena.. he uses his shield and click on spell reflect and your chain of ice gets reflected back to you and then him agian?

hmm

i guess this ability yet have to be toyed around with.

Comment by roflrogue

1- Is a debuff on target2- Procs when the target wastes mana on spell, not when you get dmged or target gets healed3- Cant be removed :O

That means you can copy Holy Light :O

OR EVEN LAY ON HANDS!

Comment by Leviatharan

I wasn't aware healing spells could be reflected. <.<And it's already been established you can only use it on reflectable, mana-based spells, so...

Comment by max4ever23

never saw an item with ''Holy Resistance'' .

Comment by Saram

The wording would be different if casting a spell would immediately cause the DK to do it too, or that the spell was going to be spell would be reflected. The wording ("allowing the Death Knight to unleash an exact duplicate of that spell") indicates that it's not automatic - rather it allows the DK to cast that spell, if they want. Logically having the choice to copy it or not would also mean that the DK decides when to cast it, and the target.

Presumably also any cast time and resource cost would be stripped - doesn't make sense that a DK would suddenly stop, stand still, and start charging up a starfire, or that we couldn't use this ability at all as anything we "steal" is going to have a mana cost, and we don't have mana.

Comment by killinwifasmile

Questions about this spell:

-Does it cast instantly (like spell reflect) or can you save it for later?-Does it have a cast time?-Will it require mechanics (think Chaos Bolt, Lava Burst)-Will it's damage be based on your stats, or the casters?-Is the stolen spell removed once cast, or do you keep it for a period of time? -If you keep it, does it have a cooldown? -If you keep it, does that mean we will get two spells? (Think Warlock portal.)

Thanks.

Comment by killinwifasmile

Wait, just read the guy above me. -____-

Comment by TastyBrush

Death Knight's version of the pokemon attack "Mirror move" if I understood the description correctly.

Comment by kylex3

Can a DK cast power word: barrier when its stolen from a priest?

Can they copy energy/rage abilities or only mana based ones?

Comment by LeonDarbor

From what I've seen in different videos Dark Simulacrum can copy at least the following abilities from other players:(Nothing about hunter, rogue or warrior so far.)

Warlock:-as everybody knows it works with the summoning ablities right now-Soulstone-Armor Spells

Comment by Aaro

Clearing up a few misconceptions about this ability:

1. You do not interrupt the target's spell, you copy the spell after it's cast. This isn't like spellsteal or spell reflect -- if they cast it, it will still go off (in case some of you DKs are hoping to interrupt that Lava Burst or big heal).2. You can only use the attack once (hence the minute cooldown). It has no cast time.3. They must be mana-based spells. Spells that don't use mana (i.e. Word of Glory, Lay on Hands) can not be copied.4. This is an ability aimed towards PvP. At the moment, it cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed via Pally bubble.5. It keeps spell requirements. (Lava Burst will not crit unless there's a Flame Shock on the opponent, etc.)6. It scales based on your AP (if it's a spell that scales).7. You have 20 seconds to use the spell before it wears off.

There will likely be a few tricks to try and get the DK to pop their Sim early, like starting to cast a strong spell but using an instant cast when you notice the Sim debuff on you.

Comment by dipiddy

Comment by Leviatharan

Best part about this spell though: Since the new spell rank system means we no longer have to train multiple ranks of spells- since they'll upgrade automatically- you can hit DSim while an enemy is casting one of their most powerful spells, like Lava Burst, and fire it back at them without worrying that it was just the rank 1 spell. :3

Comment by Velrorr

Wow. this move is going to be quite amazing.

A rich man's Spell reflection.

^fixed

Comment by Gismokvack

Death knight A uses Dark Simulacrum on death knight BDeath knight B uses Dark Simulacrum on death knight A

Comment by Zerul

Comment by Kyuudo

It copies Freezing Circle perfectly too. This is infinitely more fun than Spell Reflect, because it can copy moves that are not reflectable, and you get to decide when (and to whom) you use the spell.

Comment by erikmens

(casting pyroblast)->Hellyeah critical->Hellno its coming back

Comment by Seref

"Against nonplayers, only absorbs some harmful spells."What that means is you can't steal some of the obviously op spells bosses have. Wouldn't be balanced if you could copy a bosses spell that hits the tank for 50k+, and then do it on the boss... Talk about DPS Padding :P

Comment by SelanveenUSMaiev

theoretically, if a DK managed to DS Devouring Plague from a priest and cast it on a target, will the plague be counted as an additional disease multiplier when the DK uses strikes/oblit?

Comment by junahi

You can get paladins seal to get some extra dps.

Edit: Was wrong with ressing, but you could always duel someone before raid...

Comment by 00sugar

I know you can't DS a friendly target, but....

Before a raid, would the DK be able to duel, say, a shaman and copy the shaman's Windfury to use in the raid? It only has a 1 minute cooldown, so I could see alot of long-lasting buffs being cast like this, if it works.

Comment by 00sugar

Comment by loik

No, it says: "when the enemy next spends mana on a single-target spell", it doesn't say: "when the enemy next spends mana on a single-target spell casted onto you". I think pets can't be duplicated, but heals, enchants, damaging spells... can be duplicated.

Comment by cakiftw

there must be some time within you have to use the "stolen" spell, that will probably be 1min since its a cooldown on this abillity.

Comment by zomg5

if the pvp side of this spell works on boss fights it would be awesome

Comment by loik

if the pvp side of this spell works on boss fights it would be awesome

Against nonplayers, only absorbs some harmful spells.

This is explained in another post... It will not reflect some NPC spells because they do too much damage and you will be doing insane amounts of damage to the boss with only one ability.

Comment by Silentkill0687

So I was playing my DK on Beta the other day. Went into a BG and put this on a Disc Priest. I DG'd his Rogue to me, Priest instantly Leap of Faith's the Rogue back to her, and Dark Simul pulls the Rogue back to me. XD

Comment by NyhmFan

Lemme see... You pop DRW, by then popping DS (Dark Simulacrum) stealing the Mage's Mirror Image, and then you get 2*3+2.. Which becomes a total of... 8? Or actually 3 more of yourself and your wep... What the hell? (Meant for joking purposes only)

Comment by zomg5

only if DS works on someone with rage then i'll be able to use bladestorm with a dk xD

Comment by loik

Technically, DK + Bladestorm =BOOOOOOOOOOONE STOOOOOOOOOORM!

EPIC LOL XD

Comment by Dyminator

currently on live realm (4.0.3) Dark Simulacrum says SINGLE TARGET SPELLSDark Simulacrum20 Runic Power 40 yd rangeInstant 1 min cooldownPlaces a dark ward on an enemy that persists for 8 sec, triggering when the enemy next spends mana on a single-target spell, and allowing the Death Knight to unleash an exact duplicate of that spell. Against nonplayers, only absorbs some harmful spells.

Comment by highstakes4

People talked about this ability being OP in pve. since the fix to only taking some npc abilities, you pretty much only take trash abilities that will do around the same dmg a death coil would do except it would be for 12 less runic power and lets face it who cares about trash dps. (this was tried on heroic modes, with lowered lvl mobs it wouldnt scale properly when i tried it and it would end up casting whatever the mobs spells would hit for, so if you fight a lvl 20 mage and he hit you with a 1k pyroblast it would return a 1k pyroblast)

Another thing people forget to mention in a raid situation is that it was so hard even getting this ability to work since everyone is so used to automatically trying to stun or interrupt spells with kicks, mind freezes, rebukes, i mean tanks automatically try to silence when a spell is being casted, that it would be a wasted 20 runic power just trying to put it on mobs 1/3 of the time, because for the ability to work the cast time has to finish, and the spell fired.

This is the same case for bgs people always try to silence or stun casts so either you get lucky with an instant spell, or get some crappy buff from someone that noticed their debuff.

Finally, if this works like most debuffs, resilience would/will make this ability so useless, because the time it would be on you would probably end up being 3-4 seconds at most and that would makes it a pretty sad 85 CD.

Comment by Sujezz

Actually there isn't any reason to use fast weapons neither on dk nor shaman.

Comment by zhuril

This can retrieve Mirror Image(confirmed), it creates 3 images of you casting frost bolt!

You can steal Bloodlust and pally bubbles.

You can also steal paladin seals(last 1 minute), but not shaman weapon buffs

Comment by loik

This can retrieve Mirror Image(confirmed), it creates 3 images of you casting frost bolt!

You can steal Bloodlust and pally bubbles.

You can also steal paladin seals(last 1 minute), but not shaman weapon buffs

It's enough with seals... MUAHAHAHAHHA :D

Comment by Zenebatos

The thing that i noticed in the video above is that when you cast DS on a priest that Fear you,you still can use DS,interupt the fear debuff on you and cast the fear back at the priest!

Look closely in the video whenever a fear/stun/root spell is used against the DSed DK,it directly interupts when you cast it back.

Don't know if this is intendent or simply a glitch but boy thats a funny side effect.

Comment by jek3

If a player has had a spell glyphed to no longer cost mana, would this make that spell immune to the Dark Simulacrum?

Comment by MrTM

This skill is not even on my Ui. I think its useless.

Comment by Stigploger16

Bit overpowered :S

Comment by Riverstyx

In group situations, this spell is admittedly not the most practical, but it's extremely fun to use on trash. In most heroics, caster mobs' twilight bolt, frost bolt, etc, hit for around 20k. That's quite a lot of damage for only 20 runic power. It also seems to work on certain heroic bosses (the first boss of Vortex Pinnacle for instance). Again, it isn't the most practical, but it's fun to fool around with, and if used wisely it can be a big help.

Comment by Izerion

I've found this spell to be pretty disappointing in PvE. I was kind of excited about directing Fireballs and Shadowbolts and whatnot on NPC's but in practice this spell really isn't all that useful.

- It's hard to predict where it can be used. Many NPC's casts do not cost mana even though the mob has a mana pool (making DS not trigger). Other times the mana cost of the NPC spell is like 0.1% of their total making it hard to see wether they actually spent mana or not, especially when you're in combat & focussing on other things.- Taking into account what was mentioned before, everyone wants to interrupt the spells making you waste your RP. Hell, most of the time even interrupting the cast yourself is much more beneficial than copying it (and costs the same amount of RP).- Even if the cast costs mana and actually goes off, you still don't have a guarantee that it works since it only affects "some" NPC abilities. This is especially true for bosses.- When you finally find a situation where you can reliably copy an NPC's spells, the cooldown makes it so you can cast it only once per trash pull, perhaps 2 or 3 times on a boss.

As a final nail in the coffin of this spell, it does not seem to work with some macro's. For example, the following macro...

#showtooltip/cast Mind Freeze; Dark Simulacrum...casts Mind Freeze when I'm not holding Alt, Ctrl or Shift while pressing the button, and uses Dark Simulacrum when I am holding one of those. After copy'ing a spell using this macro, I get the buff that my runeblade can use the spell, but casting Dark Simulacrum with this macro again does nothing. A "simple" DS replaces the button that was originally used to cast DS with the spell that you copied. This does not work with the macro above.

I use macro's like this one to save hotbar space (2 spells on 1 button). Giving this spell it's own hotbar button (because it doesn't work with macro's) is just not worth it for me, especially when it's so rarely useful. I can see it being very powerful in PvP, but for PvE I likely won't be using this spell at all except maybe in some gimmick encounters.

Comment by Ghostwhowalks

While not overly game-breaking, this spell provides a fun way to surprise opponents in PvP. Hammer of Justice, Psychic Scream, Frost Nova, even Divine Shield; you can copy loads of utility spells and CC from your opponents and then throw them back. Great for turning the tables on an enemy who thinks they're about to get the upper hand in a fight.

Comment by DarkOpeth

Okay, I've been 85 for a little bit and have been doing some testing on this spell (PvP)

The ward it places is undispellable unless removed thourgh stuff like iceblock and paladin bubble.

DS is VERY situational, and depends on a fair bit of luck and timing, but it is an amazing spell. Some things I did:

-Put this on a mage, watched him blink, then blinked after him and killed him.-Used this right before a Mage's Mirror Image, and when I used the copy, 4 dk copies of myself came out, and it worked just like a normal M.I. The mage lost his target, and my DK copies casted frostbolt. LOL. -Copied a Paladin's Hammer of Justice. The effect lasted the whole duration.-Copied Seal of Light, and as DW frost, each melee healed me for like 1.6k, and needless to say, I killed the prot paladin while remaining at above 90% hp the whole time :D-Copied counterspell, prayer of mending, healing touch, ice lance, fireball, frostbolt, cyclone, polymorph, mage ward (lol, came back and bit that mage in the ass)

It works with many, many spells. However some cons: -Will not work with any AoE, it seems, but I did manage to copy and use a Paladin's Consecrate. I don't know what the limitations are quite yet, but I will keep testing.

-It can copy heals, but the healing will be very low. Keep in mind that when you copy and use the spell you are doing so using the spell's most base form only

This means that if you copy a healing or damage spell it will heal or damage for maybe a 5th of what it would if the actual owner used it. This is because when you use it, it does not factor in the original person's spell power, +healing or dmg granted through talents, spells, glyphs, masteries, etc. or any other multipliers or bonuses, only yours..

Copied spells can crit, if they are capable, although whether it uses your Crit% of the person you stole it from remains to be seen.

That leaves some intersting questions, such as if Blood's Vampiric Blood were active, would a copied healing spell benefit from that bonus? I will investigate further.

Overall a pretty solid, fun, useful spell with many interesting combinations and possibilities. Somewhat situational, and best used on "effect" spells like blink, silence, stun etc, instead of damage and healing spells.

Comment by lille

Comment by Tobeherblade

Anyone who says they'v had it work on a player is full of !@#$.. it only works on non-players... before lying to look cool do your research

Comment by Nishtai

and still i can copy a spell in deadmines dealing over 90k non crit, hm?

Comment by kantonstirfry

lemme just activate my sharingan

Comment by PalaDinka

Note how much fun this spell provides? My top 6 times when i wanted to see the faces of my victims:1. A mage enganged me in battle and i gripped it and knowing what will happen i cast this beauty on him....the mage blinks..and i blink after him2.Simuraclum placed shammy cast thunderstorm..i cast thuderstorm to his charging warrior buddy3.when i had mirror images...4. I was able to cast a ring of frost5.when i chain healed6.Once i had given the opportunity to cast cyclone

btw saw what it writes on the first sucessful use? : "your runeblade has stored the spell and is ready to unleash it anytime" or something like that.EPIC. Currently this is my favorite spell in the game...but i have to warn you all.. using this will make you addicted...it's late for me now as i seek mana users to copy cool spells..and i can't satisfy...my lust for non-DK spells. Bye folks it's time to copy something badass...My runeblade hungers...

Comment by Theorw

Indeed this is a very handy spell.I went for 2 battles AB and this is what i copied,many of which proved either to buy me time for the healer to arrive or even make the difference between win or lose on the duel.

1)HoJ (yes i stunned him right away),holy shock exorcism from a pally2)Blink! from a mage that had frozen me after blinking himself!3)PW Shield!Maybe one of the best you can steal.Bubble would be imba too but lets face it,PW Shield is way more lickly to be stolen.

Comment by darkmortall

the spell only works if it inflicts dmg on some one like a Lightning Bolt.

Comment by mandible

Does DS fire automatically when stolen or does it replace DS on your bar to cast the stolen spell?

Comment by StaticLgtBrngr

In pve this spell is just an appalling.. Heap of junk.

I sense this is because of sheer laziness on Blizzards part, instead of going through powerful boss spells and changing this spell so it can't copy them, they instead put stupid, overzealous restrictions on it.

For example, I can't copy a mobs fire shield which is massively inferior to a mages fire shield which can indeed be copied. Or I will copy a mobs fireball which hits me for 6k, and I fire the copy back for 200. Awesome trade off.

Talk about rubbish.

They really need to sort this spell out for pve because even if you grew up in a third world country and are used to crushing daily disappointments like sleeping on a stone slab floor and eating worms to stay alive, this is totally unacceptable.

This may be good in pvp but apparently unbeknownst to the developers there are some of us out here who realised long ago that creating a fun pvp game comes about as naturally to the WoW designers as break dancing does to a chair, and consequently avoid it like you would unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite.

So if you are reading this with bated breath in eager anticipation of some fun with creatures in the game world, forget it and go roll a mage because at least spellsteal is fun in every department, pve and pvp, unlike this one in its current state.

Comment by StaticLgtBrngr

In pve this spell is just an appalling.. Heap of junk.

I sense this is because of sheer laziness on Blizzards part, instead of going through powerful boss spells and changing this spell so it can't copy them, they instead put stupid, overzealous restrictions on it.

For example, I can't copy a mobs fire shield which is massively inferior to a mages fire shield which can indeed be copied. Or I will copy a mobs fireball which hits me for 6k, and I fire the copy back for 200. Awesome trade off.

Talk about rubbish.

They really need to sort this spell out for pve because even if you grew up in a third world country and are used to crushing daily disappointments like sleeping on a stone slab floor and eating worms to stay alive, this is totally unacceptable.

This may be good in pvp but apparently unbeknownst to the developers there are some of us out here who realised long ago that creating a fun pvp game comes about as naturally to the WoW designers as break dancing does to a chair, and consequently avoid it like you would unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite.

So if you are reading this with bated breath in eager anticipation of some fun with creatures in the game world, forget it and go roll a mage because at least spellsteal is fun in every department, pve and pvp, unlike this one in its current state.

Comment by Taurenor

the spell only works if it inflicts dmg on some one like a Lightning Bolt.

You are incorrect, it doesn't have to deal damage on a target, you can get Solar Beam from a moonkin, no target has to be acquired and deals damage to nobody.

Comment by StaticLgtBrngr

In pve this spell is just an appalling.. Heap of junk.

I sense this is because of sheer laziness on Blizzards part, instead of going through powerful boss spells and changing this spell so it can't copy them, they instead put stupid, overzealous restrictions on it.

For example, I can't copy a mobs fire shield which is massively inferior to a mages fire shield which can indeed be copied. Or I will copy a mobs fireball which hits me for 6k, and I fire the copy back for 200. Awesome trade off.

Talk about rubbish.

They really need to sort this spell out for pve because even if you grew up in a third world country and are used to crushing daily disappointments like sleeping on a stone slab floor and eating worms to stay alive, this is totally unacceptable.

This may be good in pvp but apparently unbeknownst to the developers there are some of us out here who realised long ago that creating a fun pvp game comes about as naturally to the WoW designers as break dancing does to a chair, and consequently avoid it like you would unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite.

So if you are reading this with bated breath in eager anticipation of some fun with creatures in the game world, forget it and go roll a mage because at least spellsteal is fun in every department, pve and pvp, unlike this one in its current state.

Comment by StaticLgtBrngr

If you are allowed to copy stuff like that when your own interrupt is on cd then I'm sorry to say it but your party needs to suck less than a super-massive black hole that's just swallowed a dyson sphere crammed with steroids from the gillette dimension.

Granted there are some spells you can hit back with on very rare occasions, but the mobs in question only die one or two seconds faster than they would without you copying one of their spells anyway.

This is a disappointing level 85 skill and there is no sugar coating it so far as pve goes, at least for the moment. It feels to me like one of those old trinkets that summons a guardian or guardians for you that do the damage of a level 30 non elite, nice aesthetically but attempting to get any real practical use out of it is like trying to move the moon out of orbit using the motor from a food blender.

Comment by Meltach

Yesterday when i was in the Deadmines HC, i used Dark Simulacrum to copy an NPC his Holy Fire and, it did 100K damage :-)

Comment by dav36van

Enemy Players in PvP: "OH NO, I see four death knights, 3 of them are casting frostbolt and 1 of them is hitting with a sword, which one is the real death knight?"

Comment by saetia147

So, based on all of this information and the spell's uses; could a DK get into a duel with a fellow Shammy right before a raid, cast DS on him, have them cast Windfury, cast DS again to gain the buff, end the duel, then use that to raid? Dear god, I hope it works like this...

Comment by Dorf

Comment by CrusaderFelbane

i think the scariest thing might not be any of these "deadbull gives you wings" or "windfury DK" things. instead, imagine this death knight is blood, and he happens to chance upon a resurrected warlock, who happens to be about to cast DEMON ARMOR. or another possibility, said DK is instead unholy, and catches said warlock as he casts soul link. this is what most non DKs would call OP. however, they clearly don't realize the knowledge of other classes and overall reaction/timing skill required to pull this off. if you are in one of these things

Comment by Lionbone

If you steal for example penance,will it scale with your attack power, the victims or your spell power (0)?I'm asking cause if it is with your spell power,then i will get some one handed caster swords and socket/enchant them to spell power so i can switch wepons for a better punch.

Comment by Shiroikage

DK QQing to blizz.

DK:...And then my anti-magic shell and anti-magic zone are on CD and cant i spam-heal cause I've depleted all my runes and casters pawn my arse...

Blizz: Then we shall grant you your new spell which we named "Faceroll Simulacrum extreme" what it does is...etc etc.

DK: Uhm yeah thats awesome thanks but i think the name is a bit exaggerated and people will react to this.

Blizz: Yeah you are right we should probably rename it to Dark simulacrum instead.

DK: Cool thanks :D

SARKASM MODE: OFF

Long story short, DK's are OverPowered™ as it is/was. No need to buff them to the extreme

This will probably get flamed and down rated but thats life :D

Comment by Copybass

Comment by subverto

I think i found a perfect example of a PvE use for this today. I was in Throne of the tides, and Had an extra unholy rune and popped it on one of the priestesses. She cast hex and I got the ability to CC a mob.

If used correctly, you could get this at the end of a fight then have a CC to use on the next mob.Don't be afraid to use this randomly! you'll find lots of potential. I pop it on adds during boss encounters and get a spell to hit the boss with.

Remember: you can only use it on mobs with mana, they get an 8 second debuff, and if they cast, you'll get a 10(15?) second buff to use it in.

Comment by Yorgl

While trying to get a screenshot to submit (the one with the gnoll you can see), I realized how nice the anim' is, and how it's a shame that on 90% of the boss / mobs, it's basically inside them so you can't see it. :-/

Comment by Greyce

How long does something like Shadowform (a permanent effect for the Shadow Priest) last for the DK when stolen?

Comment by Protodrake

I've finally got my blood DK to 85 and done some tests with this spell in bgs as well as in duels, and made this little guide,might be useful for someone =)Mage:Use Strangulate as soon as you're in range, so he won't be able to do anything. Then, death grip him (strangulate 1st, asif he is skilled he might just blink away and we don't want that ;)) + chains of ice. Unless he resisted or u missed which is unlikely, the mage is now in your melee range, slowed to 40% speed, and silenced, which is really bad for the mage and very good for you ;) Now, put Dark Simulacrum on him. From the mage's point of view: "OMG I'm silenced, in his melee range, and I'm slowed..."Any mage's natural reaction in a situation like this will be to spam blink, and when the silence is over *blink sound* he's out of reach once again. Imagine his surprise when u blink up to him and continue to dps him! (This is a good point for a mind freeze, as he will most likely be casting Arcane Blast (arcane), Scorch (fire), or Frostbolt (frost)).This has been tested on 8 mages, 3 in duels and others in bgs. One of them however, cast Frost Nova, and I copied that instead. It was useful to me anyway though as I froze the rogue and warrior attacking me, and could at least focus on the mage.

Druid(balance, resto):The fight against a druid is quite different from mage, as a druid's main heals and damage spells are instant. It is hard to write a tactic for druid as you can hardly predict what HoT or DoT they will use. I still recommend to start with strangulate,make him nervous and make him use one of the most powerful skills e.g Lifebloom, or Entangling Roots, or even Solar Beam. Casting Solar Beam back at him will annoy him mostly as it's a ~5 sec silence.

Paladin(prot or ret, holy can usually outheal all of your damage, I just avoid them =P):Catching a pala casting something good is hard, though not impossible. In this fight, try to make your damage as high as possible to scare the pala at first, after you've done all you can to damage him quickly, strangulate. This will create a hard situation for the pala as he won't be able to heal. Now place simulacrum on him, and wait for him to use his panic move. He might (about 20% chance) cast Avenging Wrath, followed by a Flash of Light or Holy Light. This should be mind frozen, as both heals restore a significant amount of his HP. Avenging Wrath will give you a nice damage boost, so you might bring the pala to low HP before the mind freeze interrupt is over. He also might use Hammer of Justice, which u can trinket out of and hammer him back ;) The 5 sec stun should give you a nice opportunity to get his HP lower ;)Might write more when I did more tests, hope this is any use to anyone =)

Comment by trendyusername

Comment by Xhosant

Just in! Bore from the Obsidian Borers before beauty in BRC is simulacrumable (or w/e it's called).The catch is, they lack a mana bar...

Edit: Why downrate? Is it not true? I did copy it, several times. You may disagree that an exception to the mana rule has implications, but the fact is it is copyable.

Comment by indesicion

nah...

Comment by darthdeathknight

Best spell in WoW! I love it! NEVER REMOVE THIS SPELL!

Comment by Kraelon

As of now, I've found several uses against mana-users in PvPFor mages, I find timing to be everything, anticipating when they'll Blink and just following right after them... gives me a free Death Grip CD to use if needed. I also find Frost/Fire Orb, Frost Nova, Blast Wave, and whatever that Magic Shield-type thing they have to be useful. Mirror Images is just weird...and I've copied Invis. and used it to chase after the mage and take him out once before.Priest's Psychic Scream and Warlock's Howl of Terror can be helpful in BG's to disperse the crowds, spells like Tranquility and Bloodlust can be copied to help sticky mid-field- FC vs. FC- Battle-Royal-Situations. Stealing a Pally's bubble and sitting there watching each other for 8 seconds is pretty awkward...And popping Anti-Magic Shell when the priest camping the flag in Eye of the Storm casts Mind Control, copying it, and giving that loser a taste of his own medicine gives the sweetest sense of satisfaction known to mankind.

Comment by Artoo

This spell is insane for a skilled player.We just used it on nef 10 hc on mind controlled players for avenging wrath, hymn of hope etc.

Bet ppl will find more situations where this shows the heroclass true nature.

Comment by lechner

lol i stole blink and copy from a mage

Comment by Roguesaxaphone

A Death Knight casting "holy spells"

Comment by Hyilralia

Use this on Zanzil before he casts his fire while there are zombies out. You will thank me later.

Comment by Parrky

Any tanks noticing that this is copying interrupted spells lately? Seen it a few times happening during heroics. May be useful to have a macro or something to interrupt then cast this so we don't need to take the hit to copy it.

Comment by Shadowlyger

This is now capable of copying a LOT more PvE spells. Try it out on anything you feel you could reasonably copy, even boss spells, because there's nothing like copying the boss's 25k Flame Shock and having DBM warn you about it being on the boss.

Comment by shantman

The other night, I was able to take Zanzil's Fire. I used it only one time on him during the entire fight. It ticked 7 times and was my 2nd place in damage done during the fight next to the AOE damage from the fire cauldron.

Comment by Khaoticsuccubus

Also works on Bloodlord Mandokir's Bloodletting ability. Using it once did round 500k dmg :3 Though prepare for insta threat :P

Comment by Xhosant

So, to compile spells that can be copied in the Zandalari dungeons: Zul'Aman: Halazzi: Flame Shock (split phase)

Zul'Gurub: Mandokir: Bloodletting Zanzil: Zanzil Fire, Voodoo Bolt

Please post more you find out bellow, so I can add them to the list.

Comment by Lostelf

I cant be botherd reading all 119 comments but can someone tell me if this works on warlock pets ? i want to run around with a voidwalker.

Comment by Ty52

seems not many people have said this, and I´m really not sure if it´s a bug or it´s planed like that...anyone else finds it very lame that we have to stay still to cast copied INSTANT spells?

Comment by Veegore

This has actually become one of my favourite spells in PVE

Testing it out on various trash/boss fights the most fun so far has been Zanzil in ZG, you can copy his zanzil fire spell if time correct; also in ZG you can copy the panther boss's lash of anguish

Comment by Fwibbles

Dark Simulacrum + Hex Lord Malacrass = Profit

Comment by schizophrenic23

I don't get it at all.The description says: "Against nonplayers, just absorbs some harmful spells." Does that mean, u cant use it in PvE? If yes, why does it work for me on some boss abilities of bosses, who not even possess mana?

I dont get it, maybe my english sucks too much to understand that.

Comment by SkylineBNR34

Works on Ragezone in Deadmines. Your tank will die. I regret nothing.

Comment by snipestar1147

Easiest way of saying it is that with Dark Simulacrum, Death Knights become the kakashi of WoW :)

Comment by zeusnow

DS only copies spells that cost mana and dks dont use mana as far as i know.

Comment by Jamdude

I can't give you a definitive list, but in terms of PVE, I've spell stolen a lot of spells today with this.

Most mobs that cast and have a mana bar car be spell stolen this way.

I have also stolen Asaad's and also my favourite so far Zanzil's Zanzili Fire, which when positioned under him, was ticking for as much as it does if a player stands in it!

Comment by Joefesok

Har Har Har

Comment by Leviatharan

For Unholy Death Knights, using this during the High Priestess Kilnara encounter will get you the very powerful , which can be used multiple times (at least twice if you're paying enough attention) before the 20 sec buff wears off. The DoT will do CRAZY amounts of damage.And on the PvP front, Frost Death Knights, it's a fun idea to pop this when fighting Frost Mages. I restrict it to Frost DKs cause you know you'll be pissed off when you copy a and realize you don't have Hungering Cold to actually FREEZE them; plus it works very well with the mastery. Same thing for this and Shadow Priests/Affliction Warlocks for Unholy (especially if you can get or Haunt, among other things like fears), or Pallies for Blood (since it's a good chance you'll either get a Stun, a Heal, or a damage-reduction CD... although in my experience, you'll prolly get Holy Wrath or Exorcism when you really don't want to).

P.S. Devouring Plague increases damage of Strikes like a disease should, even if the rest of Unholy's abilities won't work on it. ;D

Comment by StaticLgtBrngr

Odd fact about this ability is that it can copy certain npc spells which do not have mana requirements, have a play around in the world with it and you'll see.

Comment by DemoraX

also to add to the list of epic skills to copy is Shadow Blast in old kingdom, it can crit and you can fire it at bosses! vs first boss i had a tasty 517k crit, one shotting the boss and over killing it by a good 100k :Palso...does anyone know if you keep the spell for the 15-20 sec duration if a friend summons you with ? (i'm guessing it wont work)you could seriously mess up a city boss with Shadow Blast crit one shot :P

Comment by Icee

WE can also copy

Comment by PVVN3D

most useful on balance druids or resto druids. I once copied starfall, tranquility, and typhoon. I wonder if it copies the druids summon trents spell, i never copied that before. This one time i had an arena match that lasted around a hour with a holy pally healing. Every time i cast dark simulaacrum on it, most of the times it just kept giving me holy shock which was pretty useless... anyways this is a pretty good spell on all spell casters, AoE spells can also be copied such as hurricane. Most times i save the spell that i stole and use it when i really need to but dont save it for too long or it goes away which sucks.

Comment by Arxae

The Clearcasting state reduces the Mana, Rage or Energy cost of your next cast-time damaging or healing spell or offensive feral ability by 100%.

You would still get starfall, since it doesn't have a casting time and as such won't be mana free because of omen :)

Comment by Wiltleaf

Comment by Lovestar

Comment by overbite666

can you use dark simulacrum while the enemy is casting to take the spell theyre about to use?

Comment by guardian84

This works on Shattered Ice on Hagara the Stormbinder in Dragon Soul. Using Shattered Ice deals 130k (yeah 130 thousand) damage to Hagara. So DKs, USE IT!

Comment by Xhosant

It does copy Hand of Frostand Mind Flay, and does not seem to copy any skills from the trash before archbishop, nor any of the Archbishop's or Asira's. Unsure as of the trash before Arcurion, and can bet tomb and torrent can't be copied. Unsure about chains of ice, but they'd be useless either way.

Might edit with details from other dungeons too.

Comment by nukeemusn

Comment by nukeemusn

So I've gotten Power Auras to show the icon when Dark Simulacrum is available and to show the cooldown for it to copy a spell. Anyone worked out how to have a power aura to show what spell has been copied?

Comment by r0yzterr

This is usable in DS on Hagara, which will copy her shattered ice ability and will deal a serious amount of damage. This is also usable on Arcurion in Hour Of Twilight to copy his Hand of Frost, which is able to crit for 127k damage. Please note that even though the tooltip says that it only absorbs some spells on npc's, it still is usable and effective on some bosses.

Comment by natonos

If u copy a shammy stormstrike that is a mana based ability ,that means that it should scale to my AP and do a huge dmg but can it proc from 5stack of maelstrom used spells?normally considering that maelstrom at 5 stack reduces mana cost to 0 it shouldnt proc but all that are 4stacks or below should be copied.

Comment by LEKB

This is fun to use and looks cool but it's only helpful if you get an ability like

Comment by MightyWings88

As a mage, I got DS'ed when Iw as trying to run away and I was so scared. I didn't know if it would work on blink so I kinda had a mini battle in my head between blink or no blink and yeah. Death soon followed :(

Comment by thunderdragon2

i can confirm that a plala's buble is copyable with this spell also was messing around with a friend of mine and i thought id try it (was board) he put DS on me and i bubled he got buble

Comment by Okacz

Has anybody yet tried copying Deathwings "Cataclysm"?

Guess not. WoW is not over yet.

Comment by Resented

This ability won't work properly in a macro, as it takes the name of the copied spell when the effect is triggered. Therefore, to be able to /cast the copied spell in a macro, one would have to have a macro listing every spell copy-able by Dark Simulacrum in the game.

Comment by Dalard

Imagine this with Deathwing's Cataclysm....Thrall:Yay we survived the cataclysm, Deathwing is dead. Death Knight: What does this button do?BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!Death Knight at Spirit Healer: Oops, sorry guys. My bad completely.

Comment by SturmovikX

How long do buffs <shadowform mainly> last can you bag em from a friendly I just now found this OOOOOoooo nice spell heh love the blink :) To bad aimed shot/powershot or Lok CBs but what about Maelific grasp ? or lok demon form powers? thx in advance

Comment by Wafflesack

Well, does anybody have a definite no that this doesn't copy Cataclysm ?

Comment by MrJumpingBean

Can this copy Mistweaver spells, namely any of their healing mists or Crackling Jade Lightning?

Comment by Paultherurr

I am getting a little sick of Dk's using Divine Shield in arena's since patch 5.2 came out. I thought Dark Simulacrum was triggered by a mana spent spell ? DS cost no mana...I hope this gets fixed very quickly this is pushing the op-ness a little far IMO

Comment by Ernu

Comment by BlizzardCS

UPDATE 28/10/2014: We didn't get any further report, so it seems like the issue is indeed totally fixed. Thanks all for your patience and understanding while we were working on it.

UPDATE 14/10/2014: This issue should be fixed by now. Please, if you are still experiencing this issue let us know so we can look into it. :)

Hello all!

Wanted to let you know that there’s an issue with this spell at the moment. You won’t be able to use spells that have a cast time and are stored by Dark Simulacrum while moving. This is a known issue and we are already looking for a solution.

Comment by Tigronn

you can copy portal spells (tried this on nightelf, then she used shadowmeld and quickly cast it)

Comment by MrJumpingBean

It would be cool if Mages could have a spell like this.

Comment by EbonBlood

Doesn't work on warlock minions/shadowform anymore :C

Comment by Nitweed

When used on monks, even windwalkers, you can steal rushing jade wind. From thereon, you can use rushing jade wind and it will not remove the stolen spell buff, allowing you to refresh rushing jade wind as many times as you want.

Comment by victorfrank

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Comment by Havince

Stole a warlocks Summon Doomguard in the Darkmoon Deathmatch, was great. However they didn't have the talent Grimoire of Supremacy, so it only lasted the 1 minute, I am curious to see what happens if they have that talent though. Will try it out and update this with results.

Comment by ssdisfaster

Looks like they are taking away this ability in the Legion. I am pissed.

Dark Simulacrum

Dark Simulacrum

20 Runic Power

40 yd range

Instant cast

25 sec cooldown

Requires Death KnightRequires level 19Requires honor level 19

Places a dark ward on an enemy that persists for 12 sec, triggering when the enemy next spends mana on a spell, and allowing the Death Knight to unleash an exact duplicate of that spell. Against nonplayers, only absorbs some harmful spells.

Buff

Dark Simulacrum

Your next spell with a mana cost will be copied by the Death Knight's runeblade.12 seconds remaining